The opportunity to go dogsledding and spend a night out in a cabin was one of the big reasons for choosing Sweden as a replacement for Egypt and Jordan. Mr ShelleyB and I had done a similar tour when we were up here many years ago, and as a souvenir had purchased a soft toy husky which we named Henrik after our guide. In the intervening years Henrik became a favourite of ShelleyB-son and was re-christened Doggie. And of course ShelleyB-son was familiar with the story of how we came to possess Doggie.
Perhaps not surprisingly, our previous guide, who was not young 23 years ago, did not appear to be in the dogsledding business anymore. The business itself appeared to be run by his children, but snowmobiles were used in the place of dogs. After consulting reviews, we decided upon Arctic Dogsled Adventure. The premise seemed similar, driving your own sled out to cabins to spend the night, then driving back again the next day.
We were collected from the hotel after lunch, and driven to the kennels where we suited up like the Michelin family before assisting with harnessing and hitching dogs. Mr BB and I were again reminded how strong the dogs were as it was hard work even controlling one from kennel to sled. For our trip we had 3 sleds - 4 dogs and a light sled for me, just transporting our ovenight bags; 5 dogs for Mr.ShelleyB to drive, with ShelleyB son as the passenger, and 4 dogs for our guide. As it’s dark by 2pm, our trip out would be in the dark, with only headlamps for light. After the usual quick instructions from the guide, who always seem to imagine we are super-fast learners and not at all nervous of driving dogs in arctic conditions, we headed off.
The first bit out of the kennels is probably the most challenging terrain with a big hill requiring the driver to jump off and run behind (but not let go of the sled!) and some tight turns which were quite challenging in my light under-loaded sled and thus always the concern of tipping over. As we went along I felt I got the hang of it a bit more, and uphill bits welcome for the opportunity to run and keep feet from freezing.
After about an hour driving through snowy woods, and along and over the frozen Torne River we arrived at the cabins. First duty is to axe frozen meat into small portions and mix with boiling water to make a meaty slurry for the dogs. Of course there was wood to be chopped for the fire and water to be fetched from an ice hole by the river. Our guide graciously made dinner, introduced ShelleyB-son to Smores over the campfire, and kept us company before a relatively early night.
Next morning was all in reverse, with dogs requiring feeding at least 2 hours before sledding back home.
An amazing experience which we will not forget in a hurry. And of course we have sourced another soft toy husky from a local toy shop, which in keeping with tradition we have named Linnea after our guide.
everyone was getting photos of the temperature display after getting off the plane. Hopefully you’ll get a good display of the northern lights 
